Peterson held out of Vikings practice, could play Sunday

Adrian Peterson said all week his sprained left ankle wouldn’t keep him out of Sunday night’s game against the New York Giants.

The Vikings are led by three playmakers on the offense. With Beckham’s 91 catches for 1,396 yards and 13 touchdowns out of the lineup, his next biggest targets have been the unreliable Rueben Randle, and Shane Vereen with short dump offs out of the backfield. Pro Bowl captains Jerry Rice and Michael Irvin will draft players for each team, four days before the annual All-Star game takes place January 31 in Hawaii.

“Outside of Eli Manning, [Beckham] is their best player”, Peterson said.

That lack of concern extended to Friday when Peterson returned to practice and was listed as a full participant.

“One lesson I got was when we were in Cincinnati the last game of the year [in 2009]”, Zimmer said.

“He’ll be thought of as one of the greats when he’s done playing”, Brinkley said.

“This whole line and everybody in this building loves Doug”, said Demar Dotson, the lone holdover from the 2012 line that helped Martin to the Pro Bowl as a rookie.

“If guys are ready to play, they’ll play”, Zimmer told beat writers Thursday in reference to this week’s game. The problem for the Giants will be putting Minnesota in situations where it has to pass. He averages 4.6 yards per carry and has nine touchdowns.

The Bears will give the Bucs another incentive to run the ball often Sunday – they rank 26th in the NFL against the run, allowing 125.9 yards per game, as opposed to their pass defense, which is third-best in the league, allowing 216.1 yards per game through the air.

Already in need of a number of things to go in their favor to reach the playoffs, playing without their top playmaker certainly isn’t ideal for the New York Giants.

Jasper Brinkley played for the Minnesota Vikings from 2009-12, and again in 2014. Say what you want about his antics but Beckham is the only player on offense who plays with emotion, who seems to deliver almost every week even when things aren’t going great. New York, which has been eliminated from the wild-card chase, can clinch the NFC East title by winning both of its remaining games and having Washington lose its final two.3. Beckham lost his appeal of a one-game suspension that knocks him out of Sunday night’s game against the Vikings at TCF Bank Stadium.

“He did play up there, so I think he’ll be juiced up for it”, Spagnuolo said.

Peterson has had a terrific season for the Vikings, making a comeback from nearly a year off after he was suspended indefinitely amidst allegations of child abuse last season. After back-to-back extraordinary passing games, the Vikings will go in pushing the passing envelope a little harder.